Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams answers questions during a news conference, Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Cleveland. Williams said Steve Stephens, who randomly killed a Cleveland retiree and posted video of the crime on Facebook, shot himself to death in his car Tuesday during a police chase in Pennsylvania, ending a multistate manhunt less than 48 hours after it began. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Richard Aborn is president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.Richard Aborn

NEW YORK -- The vicious murder of Robert Godwin on Easter Sunday was a horrific act that shook the city of Cleveland and the nation. That it was broadcast on the Internet and now lives there forever enormously amplifies that pain.

Facebook made this unthinkable tragedy worse -- and it wasn't the first time.

Relying on others to report violent posts on its own platform -- in this case it took nearly two hours for someone to report Mr. Godwin's horrendous murder -- significantly delayed the removal of the original video. Thus, the world's largest social media company allowed a snuff film of a 74-year-old grandfather of 14 to be mass-distributed to every corner of the planet.

Here's what Facebook's spokesperson said about their failure to take down the video: "We disabled the suspect's account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the murder video."

The company also said in another statement: "We ... are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety."

The statements illuminate a large gap in how Facebook and other social media platforms handle issues of public safety. Facebook relies on other users to ensure that violent posts are reported, and then employs people to decide if the post violates community standards. This very "hands off" approach means that Facebook will always be late to address serious violence.

Facebook's excuse for not catching violent posts immediately is essentially that it's impossible for them to do it alone. Even though they have "reviewers" who monitor the network, purportedly scouring for dangerous activity, it is logistically unfeasible for Facebook to track more than one billion users in real time. Or so goes the argument.

To prevent violence from happening in the first place, Facebook could make it easier for its community to access helpful services. Much like it handles suicide prevention, Facebook should expand its outreach to include other types of prevention services, such as increased referrals to hotlines and the ability to chat to an online crisis counselor.

Facebook should also be expanding its use of technology and training to identify a range of troubling behavior on its own platform, bypassing the need for untrained users to report others' behavior. Violent crimes are often preceded by disturbing behavior online.

For instance, in December 2014, Ismaaiyl Brinsley posted "I'm Putting Wings On Pigs Today" on Instagram before he drove to New York City and executed two police officers. And a day before killing six and wounding another 14 in California in May 2014, Elliot Rodger posted on YouTube that, "Tomorrow is the day of retribution. The day in which I will have my revenge against humanity, against all of you." Technology could have helped identify and address these warning signs.

There are effective programs and approaches already in place elsewhere to keep the virtual from turning violent. At the Citizens Crime Commission, we created E-Responder, a program that trains people to identify dangerous posts on social media, help those at risk, and de-escalate conflicts online before they turn in to real world violence. After the training, E-responders were significantly more likely to identify risky posts, proving its value and need.

E-Responder launched last year, and the Citizens Crime Commission has since trained dozens of New York City-based anti-violence workers. Ninety-seven percent of interventions performed by E-Responders resulted in positive outcomes. We now hope to expand the program to other cities, from Cleveland to Columbus and beyond.

After the Easter shooting, Facebook's vice president of global operations admitted "We know we need to do better." That is certainly the case.

Facebook has since launched a review of its public safety procedures. It also announced it would be adding 3,000 more content "reviewers," increasing the number of its human monitors by two-thirds.

But that is not enough. More and more, violent intentions are foreshadowed or amplified through social media. As public communication continues to increasingly appear within these online spaces, our violence intervention strategies must get smarter and much more robust. Because it is not just the violent posts we can stop -- it is the crimes themselves.

We can all do more -- and it is social media platforms that have a responsibility to lead the way. We owe it to Mr. Godwin and his family to make sure that happens as soon as possible.

Richard Aborn is president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City. The Crime Commission is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice and public safety policies and practices.

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